1917: Germany announced the resumption of unrestricted submarine warfare, to include neutral ships — a factor that drives the United States closer to declaring war. More than 20 years later, of course, German U-boats were used again. Read about the technical specifications of the Type IX U-boat on HistoryNet.com.
Also today in history, in the U.S. and elsewhere:
- 1578: Combined Dutch and English forces defeated the Spanish at Gembloers (Gembloux), in what is now Belguim.
- 1863: The first black regiment, the South Carolina Volunteers, was mustered into the Union Army. Read a short history of the role African Americans played in the Union military on HistoryNet.com.
- 1968: The Battle of Saigon began in a wave of Viet Cong assaults, most dramatically against the U.S. Embassy. On the tactical level, the Communists wee ultimately defeated throughout the South Vietnamese capital, but the fact that they had infiltrated and attacked it as they did — and the length of time it took to fully root them out — eventually gave them a strategic victory.
